It’s been four years since eleven year old Stephen Walcer has been diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum. Since then, his mother, Laurie Ewen, and their family have been working with it since.

“When we experience something, like a loud noise, we experience that moment and then it goes away in the background. Then we hear another loud noise and it goes away,” Ewen said about Stephen’s experiences. “For [Stephen], once he’s experienced it, it kind of sits there and festers, and then he hears something else and it adds up and adds up until he just cant quite handle it. So it’s like he’s going to a rock concert after hearing all these different noises.”

After trying tons of programs to help Stephen better function, like occupational therapy to help communicate with others and speech therapy to help with his childhood apraixa of speech, Ewens wanted to try something different.

Ewen noticed that Stephen would calm down around dogs, and decided to apply for a guide dog for autism three years ago, which are trained to help kids like Stephen. They were approved for a guide dog after some time.

For over a year now, Bingo the guide dog has been there to make his life much more comfortable and safe not only for Stephen but his family too.

Bingo is a pure bred black lab and was trained and bred at the Lions Foundation of Canada. Bingo and other dogs are put into foster care for their first year where they will do monthly training and are exposed to the community. Then, they return when they are nine months to a year old and go through four to six months of hardcore training.

“The Lions Foundation takes the pairing of the dogs very seriously. It’s not just a matter of I’ve got a dog I’ve got a kid lets put them together,” explained Ewen. “They’ll go through the files and they'll make sure its and appropriate match all the way across the board. If there's one thing that doesn't match, they'll go to the next file.”

The first day that Bingo had met Stephen, Ewen noted that everyone had noticed a change in Stephens attitude. He became more talkative and was communicating well with everyone.

Bingo even helped Stephen with his sleeping, turning a two hour process, if lucky, to get Stephen to bed into no time at all. Before Bingo, he would fall asleep then notice Ewen not there beside him ,due to his sensory processing, and wake up again. Now, with Bingo with him in bed, Stephen goes to sleep with no problem.

Stephen works for his dog too. He grooms, feeds, and cleans up messes that Bingo causes, Ewen says that they are an amazing team now

Bingo is a working dog though. Which means he can’t be touched or called to when with Stephen or Ewen. The reason for this is because Bingo and other guide dogs get distracted by this and may not listen to commands. 

Although a blessing for Stephen, the dog is a huge financial cost. Guide dogs like this one cost $25,000. That’s to pay for the training, flights for workers, the family and the dog, and expenses needed for the travelling family.

So, Ewen is helping to raise funds for someone else who isn't fortunate enough to get their own Bingo.

The Moose Jaw Order of the Eastern Star will be hosting a dance fundraiser tonight (September 16th) at the Church of our Lady hall. Tickets are available at the door of the church with a cash bar inside and the event starts at 7. The dance will feature special guests like Laurie Ewen and Bingo and musical guest “The Bromantics” will be playing.

“It’s just helped [Stephen] so much, he’s gone from not being able to communicate as well to being able to tell us whats wrong in minutes instead of days,” added Ewen. “If he needs that sensory pressure he can get it from Bingo he doesn't have to bang into people to get it. It’s just calmed everything down, It’s a miracle.”